A few armed servant-men were posted in the hall, and when therioters forced an entrance there, they fired some half-a-dozenshots. But these taking no effect, and the concourse coming onlike an army of devils, they only thought of consulting their ownsafety, and retreated, echoing their assailants" cries, and hopingin the confusion to be taken for rioters themselves; in whichstratagem they succeeded, with the exception of one old man who wasnever heard of again, and was said to have had his brains beatenout with an iron bar (one of his fellows reported that he had seenthe old man fall), and to have been afterwards burnt in the flames.
The besiegers being now in complete possession of the house, spreadthemselves over it from garret to cellar, and plied their demonlabours fiercely. While some small parties kindled bonfiresunderneath the windows, others broke up the furniture and cast thefragments down to feed the flames below; where the apertures inthe wall (windows no longer) were large enough, they threw outtables, chests of drawers, beds, mirrors, pictures, and flung themwhole into the fire; while every fresh addition to the blazingmasses was received with shouts, and howls, and yells, which addednew and dismal terrors to the conflagration. Those who had axesand had spent their fury on the movables, chopped and tore down the doors and window frames, broke up the flooring, hewed away therafters, and buried men who lingered in the upper rooms, in heapsof ruins. Some searched the drawers, the chests, the boxes,writing-desks, and closets, for jewels, plate, and money; whileothers, less mindful of gain and more mad for destruction, casttheir whole contents into the courtyard without examination, andcalled to those below, to heap them on the blaze. Men who hadbeen into the cellars, and had staved the casks, rushed to and frostark mad, setting fire to all they saw--often to the dresses oftheir own friends--and kindling the building in so many parts thatsome had no time for escape, and were seen, with drooping hands andblackened faces, hanging senseless on the window-sills to whichthey had crawled, until they were sucked and drawn into theburning gulf. The more the fire crackled and raged, the wilder andmore cruel the men grew; as though moving in that element theybecame fiends, and changed their earthly nature for the qualitiesthat give delight in hell.
